Rt. Hon. A. Clarkson GG (ret.)

[August1991]

"You may be surprised and interested to know that I am really glad to have participated in (a minority government)," Clarkson said in a speech Wednesday, her largest final engagement and a farewell of sorts.

"My constitutional role has lain in what are called 'reserve powers:' making sure that there is a prime minister and a government in place, and exercising the right 'to encourage, to advise, and to warn,' " she said.

"Without really revealing any secrets, I can tell you that I have done all three."

CP

What's this all about? At least Mulroney was no tease.

----

BTW, Mulroney is right about Ottawa. Adrienne was married to Stephen Clarkson who wrote a hagiographic book about Trudeau with Christina McCall who was married to Peter Newman. (I might have missed a few marriages, sleep-overs there.)

[Canuck E Stan]

August,

What's this all about? You were right,about all this coming out of the blue.Caught this in the paper this morning that a lot of news stories omitted.

"I think she"ll get good historical verdicts," said McWhinney whose book,The Governor General and the Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Governments (Ronsdale), is being published this fall.

So it's all about PR for selling a new book.

[Shakeyhands]

well nothing wrong with a little bit of self rpomotion and whetting the appetites of those that would actually buy such a book.... But I think it in better taste to actually wait until you are out of the role and have given the new person time to settle in...

[August1991]

Her book's out:

"The question arose during Paul Martin's minority government of whether or not I as governor-general would grant dissolution and allow an election to be called if the prime minister requested it," Clarkson writes. "After considering the opinions of the constitutional experts whom I consulted regularly, I decided that, if the government lasted six months, I would allow dissolution. To put the Canadian people through an election before six months would have been irresponsible."

And:

Generally, Clarkson said she found Martin to be an inexperienced politician who was surrounded by aides intent on grabbing power away from senior bureaucrats in the Privy Council Office. Martin's only cabinet post had been finance minister. His predecessor, Jean Chretien, had a much longer cabinet career with first-hand familiarity of almost every important portfolio, including finance, foreign affairs and Indian affairs.

Chretien was the prime minister who appointed Clarkson in 1999 for what turned out to be a six-year term. When Chretien would telephone, Mozart or Bach was often playing in the background. That impressed Clarkson.

CanWest

Mulroney was a better gossip.

As an ex-GG, she's now on a $120,000 pension for life - which she'll receive in addition to any other money she has. Not a bad gig for six years work.

[g_bambino]

Generally, Clarkson said she found Martin to be an inexperienced politician who was surrounded by aides intent on grabbing power away from senior bureaucrats in the Privy Council Office.

CanWest

That's rich - this coming from the woman who was surrounded by Rideau Hall aides and staff intent on grabbing power and attention away from the GG's own boss. Though Clarkson has my admiration for a number of things, she unfortunately listened too much to those republican minded beaurocrats who, after the first couple of years, had her believing she herself was President of Canada.

As an ex-GG, she's now on a $120,000 pension for life - which she'll receive in addition to any other money she has. Not a bad gig for six years work.

That's the other kind of rich.

Overall, I think the book is a terrible idea. She would have garnered more respect, I'd think, by exercising the same discression as the woman she used to represent, and keeping what went on between her and her ministers as a private matter. This publication is simply her further flexing her ego (as though that were possible) and making money off of it to boot, regardless of how it politicizes the office she once occupied.

[Durgan]

BTW, Mulroney is right about Ottawa. Adrienne was married to Stephen Clarkson who wrote a hagiographic book about Trudeau with Christina McCall who was married to Peter Newman. (I might have missed a few marriages, sleep-overs there.)

excessively flattering

I thought Adrienne was gone and she rises from the dead. The second rising in recorded history.

I said it before and I say it again, "Be gone, as Governer General you did enough harm to the office". I hope she is not expecting to make big money from her musings.

Durgan.

[Chrissy1979]

Best GG ever.

[August1991]

Haven't read the book, but Margaret Wente's column on it in today's Globe says some pretty interesting things about the book. (No link, the column is subscriber only.)

Frankly, I don't know who makes me feel more oblivious: Wente or Clarkson. These are two ambitious, Toronto female journalists of a certain age who appear to be involved in some kind of catfight. Outsiders simply won't understand the innuendo. (Too bad Teddy Ballgame's not around anymore. He might have been a half decent interpreter.)

Some quotes of quotes:

Mme. Clarkson herself seldom admits to error. The unfortunate decision to go on television and defend herself, she says, was the result of bad staff advice. When she made the unfortunate declaration that she was "above politics," her critics were to blame for not understanding what she meant. Here's what she meant: "To be 'above politics' is to be able to see the whole field in the way that Tolstoy saw the whole field in describing the Battle of Borodino in War and Peace."

Tolstoi? Borodino? Mme. Clarkson?

"Only in Quebec have I seen that Canadians truly understand that culture is an expression of their highest aspirations as human beings," she writes. "I think there's an unconscious envy of this in the rest of the country."

Huh?

The ability to carry on a cultivated conversation seems to be her main criterion for passing judgment on the many heads of state she met. Not surprisingly, George W. Bush (who told her he mostly reads the Bible) flunked. Mr. Putin passed gloriously. Oddly enough, she and the despised Mr. Bush have one thing in common: Both were charmed to bits by the ruthless Russian strongman.

What's this fascination with Russia?

Wente's column is here.

No, I won't buy the book. It appears to be filled with mean-spirited gossip. At least, that's what Wente implies.

[Higgly]

The lady has balls. She is the only one who raised the alarm when panicky Anne (McLel...whatsit) ramrodded the theft of privacy rights after 9/11. She alone pointed out that we had precious few safeguards to our democracy - the House, and the Judiciary, and Panicky Anne had suddenly and unilaterally assigned the latter to the dustbin.

Bravo Madame. Please don't forget us.

[Ricki Bobbi]

"Only in Quebec have I seen that Canadians truly understand that culture is an expression of their highest aspirations as human beings," she writes. "I think there's an unconscious envy of this in the rest of the country."

Huh?

That one got me too.

I think Clarkson makes the mistake of assuming Montreal culture is Quebec culture. Just like she probably assumes the culture of Toronto is representative of the culture of English Canada.

Neither are really true and goes to show how out of touch she really is.

She is symbolic of how out of touch the position of GG really is.

I do wonder why she feels she was qualified for the role of GG while Michaelle Jean wasn't..

[gerryhatrick]

I think Clarkson makes the mistake of assuming Montreal culture is Quebec culture. Just like she probably assumes the culture of Toronto is representative of the culture of English Canada.

Neither are really true and goes to show how out of touch she really is.

You're telling us what you "think" Clarkson's inner beliefs are, and then you make a judgement based upon that.

That shows us how out of touch you really are.

[Ricki Bobbi]

You're telling us what you "think" Clarkson's inner beliefs are, and then you make a judgement based upon that.

That shows us how out of touch you really are.

Got me there gerry. Yet again, add nothing to the thread and just post to attack another poster. Good work!

I'll go back to actually debating the topic. Have you spent anytime in small-town Quebec?

How could anybody argue that Star Academie was an expression of our highest aspirations as human beings?

Just like Canadian Idol, Star Academie is representative of a celebrity-obsessed culture. It also got *huge* ratings in Quebec.

[g_bambino]

What's this all about? You were right,about all this coming out of the blue.Caught this in the paper this morning that a lot of news stories omitted.

"I think she"ll get good historical verdicts," said McWhinney whose book,The Governor General and the Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Governments (Ronsdale), is being published this fall.

Now that another thread has directed me back here, I've read the above post again, and given that I've also since looked at Clarkson's book, and read McWhinney's book, I have to say these two must have had some lengthy conversations with each other about the Governor Generalcy. The similarities in their theories are too strikingly similar to simply be coincidence.

They both seem to believe that the Governor General is the de facto monarch/president of Canada who is appointed by the Prime Minister and wears the Crown directly on his or her head; and it does seem to be some weird hybrid as McWhinney and Clarkson acknowledge the existence of the Crown, but deny the existence of the Queen. Further, Clarkson says that the name put forward to the Queen for appointment as GG should, in future, be put before a parliamentary committee, and then voted on in the House of Commons; McWhinney states almost the exact same thing.

Both are clearly out of touch with reality - though perhaps for different reasons. I suspect McWhinney is merely a republican, while his elevation of the Governor General as head of state above the Queen herself suited Clarkson's ego.

What many suspected for so long (fostered by Clarkson's treatment of the Queen at the D-Day anniversary ceremonies in France, Lafond's demand that people stand in his presence alone, the removal of the Queen's name from Letters of Credence and Recall in favour of the Governor General's alone, etc.) has now been openly affirmed: Clarkson viewed herself as the appointed President/Queen of Canada, and her husband as the First Man/Royal Consort.

Ugh, her ego is suffocating.